9. Everly
Everly
You had to put up with a lot while working in retail. Customer service was all about making the client happy. Aunt Mildred’s boutique gave commission bonuses for some of the designer brands, which meant putting on a smile and staying humble. For the most part.
I’d learned how to upsale to some of the most arrogant, narcissistic customers the world had ever seen.
I’d kept a smile on my face while grown women cursed and practically spat in my face.
There had been times I had to keep my cool, my professional smile never once dropping, while I had police escort a basketball player’s wife out of the shop.
But that was then.
Those people hadn’t been messing with the one person I would trade my life, my very goddamn soul, to protect.
And I most definitely hadn’t been in the middle of the most excruciatingly mortifying predicament like the one in which I currently found myself. Shoving down my discomfort, I steeled my spine and faced Rory Reid, matching her vibe in the blink of an eye.
She hadn’t come to have a getting-to-know-you chat with the woman she assumed was interested in her son. She’d come to warn me off.
To warn Evie.
I remembered how besotted my twin had been with Chance the night before.
How she’d barely noticed I was there after he dropped to his knees for her.
Then there was how our front door had been shut and locked when I’d gotten home earlier—with Evie inside.
She’d been sleeping so peacefully with him on the couch, not a care in the world.
No anxiety interrupting her dreams.
No claustrophobia choking her.
Nothing but peace.
Finally, truly happy.
That was everything I’d ever wanted for her.
It didn’t matter that it was with the bloodhound. He was the one who could give her what she deserved. And I’d be damned if I would allow anyone to fuck that up.
Especially not some snotty bitch who didn’t think anyone was good enough for her son.
Blood boiling, I forgot about everything and everyone around me. It didn’t matter that I was at work. I didn’t care that there were witnesses. And I sure as fuck didn’t care who or what I destroyed in the process.
I lunged at Rory, grabbing her hair and jerking her forward. She squawked in surprise and pain as I got in her face. “Did you just call my sister a whore?”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Rory shouted, her hands grasping my wrist, trying to unclench my fingers from her hair. “You’re a psycho. No one called anyone a whore. This is assault, you stupid bitch. Let go!”
My hold tightened, pulling harder until her head was touching her shoulders. She screamed obscenities, wiggling in an attempt to get free. Around us, I was blind to the others. All I saw was Rory and the danger she posed to my sister’s happiness.
“You will not approach Evie like you just did me. If she’s introduced to you, if you are ever blessed with that honor, you will treat her with respect and with a goddamn smile on your face.
” I tugged her closer, dropping my voice.
“And if you ever make her cry, if I ever find out you are responsible for so much as a single tear from her eyes, I promise you will regret it.”
“Let go of me!” Rory shouted again. “Mila, do something. Your employee is unstable.”
“Ah, Christ,” Mila groaned, but I was too enraged to look at anyone but the woman in front of me. “You know what? No. I’m not even a little pissed about this. You came in here to intentionally fuck around, and now you found out. This is on you, Rory.”
“I came in here for a conversation,” Rory snarled. Her nails scratched at my hand and down my arm, leaving red welts along the way.
“You came into my place of work to call my sister and me whores. Did you think that would protect you? That because you’re a customer, I would smile and take whatever vitriol you spewed at me?
” I clenched my fingers, ripping a few strands free, causing her to wail.
“If I get fired, I get fired. But no one is going to talk about my sister like that in front of me. I don’t care who you are. To me, you’re no one.”
“Just because you didn’t put hands on Everly first doesn’t mean you didn’t instigate the situation,” someone said, but it was difficult to decipher who was speaking with blood rushing through my ears like a white-rapid river.
“No one asked you, little girl,” Rory seethed. “You’re not part of this, so get lost.”
“Talk to Abi like that again, Rory. Please. I dare you.”
A chill slithered down my spine at the veiled violence in that voice. Even through my own haze of rage, I sensed the danger coming from the raven-haired beauty across the boutique.
“Let’s all just take a deep breath.” Jos’s tone was calm and firm, commanding. “Everly, sweet girl, I need you to release Rory. Then we can have a conversation. A rational, adult-sized conversation.”
Inhaling slowly and deeply, I unclenched my fingers one by one. As soon as Rory felt my grip ease, she jumped back, putting several feet between her and the counter. “I’m filing an assault charge on you with the sheriff.”
“Again, you were the one who made Everly feel threatened first. I’m sure Mila has plenty of cameras in here to show what happened.
” Abi’s voice was quiet and full of reason, earning her another sneer from Rory.
“I will happily give a statement telling Sheriff Davis that I saw you verbally abusing Everly and her sister.”
“That’s a lie!” Rory cried, pointing at me. “She grabbed me without provocation. Besides, how would you even know what was being said here when you were all the way over by the clothes?”
“Sound travels, and this shop isn’t as big as you think,” Abi said with a casual shrug.
My anger was starting to cool, and with it, reality began to return.
Shocked by my own behavior, I glanced from Rory, who was still rubbing her head, to Mila, who was leaning back against the counter watching everyone dispassionately, to Abi, who had several dresses folded over one arm, to Sammy, who had placed herself in front of Abi ever so slightly.
Then finally to Jos, but her eyes were trained solely on Rory.
Violence should not be the answer to any problem…except sometimes it was the only answer.
Getting Evie away from William had only been possible through violence. Which was why he was dead now. Attacking a total stranger for calling my sister and me names was not the same thing.
But damn, it felt good.
I wasn’t sorry that I’d grabbed her hair. It was the mess I had to clean up now that I regretted. My never-ending to-do list just got longer, with more and more priorities taking over the top of the damn thing.
Potentially being arrested for assault on a customer was low on the list of things I was worried about at the moment. Number one was how I was going to tell Evie how awful her boyfriend’s mother was without causing her to panic or lose any of the peace she’d recently found.
What the fuck was it about the bloodhound and his mother that made me prone to violence?
They pulled at the darker parts of my inner self, the parts that wanted to spill blood.
I blamed William for the rage that lived within me, but it was both nature and nurture since my mother had cultivated it—primarily toward her ex-husband.
Number two was how I was going to deal with Reid never wanting to see me again after I’d gotten into a physical altercation with his aunt. Maybe he wasn’t close with her and wouldn’t care too much. Or maybe he adored her as much as he did his mom and would never want to see me again.
That thought caused an earthquake of pain to rattle through my chest. I’d just found Reid, and I wasn’t ready to lose him. It was too soon to consider us a permanent thing, but I hoped we could have a future together.
Number three was definitely finding out what was going on with my freaking burning cooch. Jesus Christ, it was even more intense now that I was self-aware again.
Two and three kinda went hand in hand. Cause and effect, that sounded reasonable in my head. Reid was the cause of the situation. He’d deflowered me, and whether this was an allergic reaction or something else, it was all his fault.
His stupid-handsome face and his big dick and his annoying aunt were the reasons I was having the worst morning of my life.
Although his stupid-handsome face and his big dick were also the reasons I’d woken up thinking it was the best day of my life. Along with all those other delicious, lickable parts of his amazing body.
Damn it.
And double damn his stupid-handsome face and his big dick.
The door to the store opened, and I felt the world shift beneath my feet.
No.
Scratch numbers one through three off that motherfucking list.
Priority number one had just walked in, ice-cold rage flaring high in his dark eyes as he took everyone in, barely skimming over me and the other women in the room before zeroing in and staying glued to Abi.
Ah, fuck.
This couldn’t be happening.
How was I going to deal with coming face-to-face with the hit man I’d hired to extract my sister from William?